Howard Young Medical Center Earns 5-Star Rating for Second Consecutive Year

CMS star ratings are comprehensive way to measure hospital quality and safety

For the second consecutive year, Howard Young Medical Center received five stars, the highest possible rating, from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as part of its 2023 5-Star Quality Rating System. HYMC was recognized with a 5-Star rating in 2022. 

 

A CMS 5-Star rating is the highest possible score that CMS assigns to hospitals, placing Howard Young among the top 10% of all eligible hospitals in the United States. Three stars is the national average.  

 

CMS provides the star ratings to help patients make informed decisions about where to get health care and encourage hospitals to improve the quality of care they provide.

 

“It’s incredible to see the recognition our entire team at Howard Young Medical Center has received from CMS and others this year,” said Aspirus North Division President Teri Theiler. “The high-quality patient care and outcomes from the 5-Star ratings showcase the hard work and dedication consistently delivered by our physicians, nurses and staff.”

 

The overall star rating for hospitals summarizes quality information on important topics, like readmissions and deaths after heart attacks or pneumonia. The overall rating, between 1 and 5 stars, summarizes a variety of measures across 5 areas of quality into a single star rating for each hospital. The 5 measure groups include:

  • Mortality (22%)
  • Safety of care (22%)
  • Readmission (22%)
  • Patient experience (22%)
  • Timely and effective care (12%)

The overall rating shows how well each hospital performed on an identified set of quality measures compared to other hospitals in the U.S. The more stars, the better a hospital performed on the available quality measures. CMS assigns star ratings to U.S. hospitals annually based on 46 hospital quality measures. Data reporting periods range from July 2018 to March 2022, depending on the measure.

 

Howard Young Medical Center is one of the 29 five-star hospitals in Wisconsin and 483 nationwide. In addition to the 5-Star rating, HYMC earned The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® and the American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark for Acute Stroke Ready Certification. The Woodruff hospital was also recognized as a recipient of the Healthgrades 2023 Patient Safety Excellence Award™ and the Outstanding Patient Experience Award™.